Банкротство Dish Wireless оставило владельцев церковных крыш на улице с долгами на удаление оборудования

(Bloomberg) -- The remnants of Charlie Ergen's soured $46 billion bet on 5G can be found on the roof of a church in suburban Boston, atop a university water tower outside Minneapolis and on buildings in Manhattan and Knoxville, Tennessee. Most Read from Bloomberg The EchoStar Corp. chairman's plan to turn Dish Wireless into a major US telecom provider got an assist from these and more than 3,000 other small property owners around the country, including more than 80 churches that agreed to install antennas on their rooftops to generate extra income. But Dish stopped paying rent last year after regulators began scrutinizing its 5G plans. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June and now wants to abandon the equipment, leaving property owners and managers staring down bills to remove it themselves. In the case of Michael Grace, the tab is $49,000. "This is the screwiest thing," said Grace, co-founder of Grace Capital outside Chicago. Dish hasn't paid its $2,500 monthly rent since last fall for antennas atop a 10-story office building that Grace's firm manages in Knoxville. The equipment is so bulky that Grace says he'll have to pay a crane company about $49,000 to remove it. Leaving it in place would make him liable should there be an accident, he says. "If you don't want to pay anymore, that's OK," Grace said. "Take your equipment and go." The frustrations of small-time landlords boiled over in a hearing last month when one attorney accused Dish of treating his clients and other unsecured creditors like "roadkill." In big, corporate Chapter 11 cases, such creditors do get a seat at the negotiating table but can wait years before getting a check compensating them for missed rent and related expenses.The key juncture in the process comes Oct. 13, when Judge Christopher Lopez, who's overseeing the case in a Texas bankruptcy court, is scheduled to consider approving Dish's restructuring, which is being challenged by creditors. Origin Story A Dish spokesperson declined to comment and referred to the company's previous filings. An EchoStar spokesperson declined to comment. Most property owners are owed less than $100,000 and Dish has said the bulk of their costs can be recovered through a $2.4 billion Federal Communications Commission trust created by EchoStar and funded with sales of spectrum licenses. The trust specifically sets aside $200 million for smaller property owners and the FCC said in a July 30 order that funds are earmarked for what they call "decommissioning" and other expenses. However, smaller property owners still say they're unsure how much they'll get or when. Ergen's 5G venture began in earnest after Dish acquired Boost Mobile from Sprint for $1.4 billion in 2020 and began building a cellular network "from scratch," according to bankruptcy filings. Dish has said in bankruptcy papers that the firm and its affiliates spent $16 billion building its 5G infrastructure and that EchoStar spent more than $30 billion since 2008 to acquire spectrum licenses. By spring 2025 Dish had deployed more than 144,000 radios across 24,000 tower sites and had $567.8 million in 5G-related rental liabilities. But last year FCC Chairman Brendan Carr notified Ergen that the agency would investigate whether EchoStar had sufficiently built out its mobile network. The investigation and the FCC's potential termination of its valuable spectrum licenses "posed an existential threat to the company," Dish said in a July bankruptcy filing. Ergen ultimately agreed to sell wireless spectrum to AT&T Inc. and SpaceX for $40 billion. The FCC ended its investigations following the sales, but Ergen was left to wind down the wireless business after Dish filed for bankruptcy. The company's Chapter 11 plan is supported by holders of about $9.75 billion of Dish's bonds. However, it's being challenged by large cell tower owners that had helped with the 5G buildout, including Crown Castle Inc. and American Towers LLC. Crown Castle has argued the deal would effectively wipe out billions of dollars in damages its entitled to. `Roadkill' Creditors Ivan Gold, a lawyer representing about 40 smaller landlords, told Lopez in a July court hearing that the process Dish creditors have to go through to collect is so convoluted and lacking key details that it's impossible for them to know what they'll get back. Smaller creditors are "the roadkill of the wind-down of Dish Wireless," Gold told the judge at the hearing. Dish hardware has been left atop New York City apartment buildings, a water tower in Vadnais Heights, Minnesota, an office tower in Oakland, California, and an Associated Bank building in Greenfield, Wisconsin. The state of limbo is leaving creditors like the Congregational Church of Needham, roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Boston, in the lurch. For one thing, the lost rental income represents about 5% of its annual budget, said Tom Mollerus, the church's moderator. "Our budgets aren't huge to begin with — that 5% means we have to cut back on other programs," he said. "We don't have a lot of extra room we're dealing with." Then there's the matter of the antenna equipment, which puts extra load on the church roof and steeple and complicates routine maintenance tasks. It also increases hazards like electrocution and radiation and requires upkeep so it doesn't rust or create leaks in the building, Mollerus said. The church wants Dish to pay about $20,300 for unpaid rent and late charges, according to court papers. The church has also rented space to T-Mobile and Mollerus said the deals with telecom providers have helped it offset lost revenue from declining membership, an issue that's affecting religious institutions around the country. Appealing LocationsDish had leases with a few Masonic temples and scores of churches, which tend to be good locations for cellular equipment because they're centrally located and their steeples offer relatively high locations in smaller towns. Among those seeking repayment is Community Congregational Church in Short Hills, New Jersey, which has sought $87,634 and puts the tab for removing the equipment at $39,650. Community of the Savior in Rochester, New York, is seeking $96,924. However, Dish in its own filings say it owes the church $9,388. The claims filed so far by churches and other smaller landlords are often substantially higher than what Dish has said it owes. Dish has said smaller property owners will be fully repaid but has also argued in court that the FCC's actions triggered "force majeure" clauses that excused it from obligations under its leases, which creditors dispute. Bankruptcy law also restricts landlords' ability to recover the cost of removing equipment from their premises.The FCC didn't respond to a request for comment about the use of the trust. Brad Jacobsen, facilities manager for First Presbyterian Church in Fullerton, California, says Dish didn't pay its lease for eight months. "The fact that they have also abandoned their equipment means that we can't rent to another entity until we have the current Dish equipment removed which is another big cost for us," he said. --With assistance from Sophie Butcher and Kelcee Griffis. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek ©2026 Bloomberg L.P.